Cyclone Fani has made a landfall in Odisha on Friday, 3 May. The extremely severe cyclone caused extensive damage due to near 200 kmph winds and heavy rainfall. Odisha and Andhra Pradesh are on red alert and flights in West Bengal’s Calcutta have been cancelled till 6 am on Saturday, 4 May.
The cyclonic system, whose eye is around 28 km wide, is moving at around 30 kmph, IMD said. But within the system, the winds are reaching speeds of up to 175 kilometres per hour that may go up to 200 kmph, leaving in their wake uprooted trees and thatched structures, including in the state capital Bhubaneswar.
A cyclone making a landfall implies that the first arm of the cyclone has reached the land.
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Arrangements have been made to start free kitchens at the cyclone shelters. Around 4,000 such shelters, including 880 specially designed cyclone centres, are housing the evacuees.
Over one lakh dry food packets have been kept ready for air dropping for which two choppers were requisitioned, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) BP Sethi said.
No casualty has so far been reported from any part of the state, Sethi said adding the government is fully prepared to deal with the situation.
After the landfall, the system is passing through Khurda, Cuttack, Jajpur, Bhadrak and Balasore before entering West Bengal, Sethi said, adding that Bhubaneswar is likely to be hit by high velocity wind of around 140 kmph.
(With inputs from PTI)
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